For the third year, the “SIFF Teen” special selection will be presented to the audience in Sofia. After each screening of a film from this program, there will be a discussion with the audience led by director Nadejda Koseva about the topics and the way they are presented in these cinematic stories, which resonate with the sensibilities of young people. The program includes seven films, with screenings held at Euro Cinema, and young viewers will vote to determine the winner of the award.
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Toxic by Lithuanian director, screenwriter, and editor Saulė Bliuvaitė comes to Sofia with the grand “Golden Leopard” award for Best Film, Best First Film, and the Ecumenical Jury Award from Locarno ’24. In the film, the main characters, Maria and Kristina, are two 13-year-old girls who dream of escaping from their industrial hometown. A unique bond forms between them when they enroll in the local modeling school, where the promise of a better life drives them to push their bodies to ever more extreme limits. “Through a story of young girls situated in a toxic environment, I wanted to explore the concept of the human body – as a project, a medium of exchange, an object of desire, and a source of pain and magic,” explains Bliuvaitė. She will meet the audience in Sofia during an online discussion after the screening of the film, which takes place on March 15 at 18:30.
The winner of the “Laterna Magica” award from Venice ’24, The Story of Frank and Nina (Italy-Switzerland) by screenwriter and director Paola Randi is dedicated to the power of words. It is a surprisingly warm, engaging, and to some extent humorous tale about the unusual friendship among three youths – one with a speech defect who hardly utters a word, another who sometimes speaks excessively, and a young mother who, completing this peculiar trio, wants nothing more than to finish school exams. Regardless of who the words belong to, they have the power to create meaning in the world around us. The filmmaker describes the story as a light-hearted plot dedicated to growing up and “three children struggling with reality.” One of the charming young actors – Samuele Teneggi – will be a special guest in Sofia, personally presenting the film on March 17 at 18:00, and answering questions from the audience after the screening.
The action in Yasmeen’s Element (Pakistan-USA) by Amman Abbasi takes place in the Hunza Valley at the foot of the Himalayas, renowned for the longevity of its residents, yet still a contested region. The main character, Yasmeen, is an elementary school student when an armed group suddenly disrupts the class. At that moment, Yasmeen loses her assigned homework – a presentation on an element from the periodic table – and decides to take to the streets to search for her arrested teacher. One of the co-producers of the film is Kamen Velkovsky. The screening is scheduled for March 18 at 18:00, immediately followed by an online discussion with the director.
The film Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia-Italy-Croatia-Serbia) by Slovenian director Urška Djukić was awarded the FIPPRESCI “Perspectives” prize and will be introduced in Sofia in person by Slovenian co-producer Miha Černec, who is also a member of the Documentary Competition jury. The story follows the relationship between two teenage girls who meet in the female choir of a Catholic school. During a weekend of rehearsals at a provincial monastery, after encountering a charming restorer, the stirrings of emerging sexuality trigger a change in their relationship, and new, still unfamiliar desires threaten to disrupt the harmony among people. The screening of the film is on March 21 at 18:00.
Panopticon (Georgia-France-Italy-Romania) by George Sikharulidze confronts the viewer with 18-year-old Sandro and his sense of uncertainty. Raised by an atheist grandmother and a deeply religious father, the protagonist of this story feels abandoned to fate, without a personal role model or values. He becomes vulnerable to dangerous ideologies, and his inability to find his way strains his relationship with his girlfriend. The film focuses on the environment and its critical role in the growth and development of young people as individuals. The film, honored with the Honorable Mention from the Ecumenical Jury at Karlovy Vary ’24, will be presented in Sofia on March 19 at 18:00. After the screening, the audience is invited to join an online discussion with the film’s director.
The Greek-North Macedonian co-production Kyuka Before Summer’s End by the young and promising Greek director Kostis Charamountanis has won two awards at the Thessaloniki festival – the Audience Award in the “Film Forward” competition and the “Finos Film” prize for the best debut work from Greece, as well as a nomination for Best Debut Film at Haifa. The story is dedicated to a summer yacht vacation featuring a single father and his twins. Amid the excitement of approaching maturity, the two children meet their mother for the first time, the woman who abandoned them as infants. Although the bitterness of the betrayal is inevitable for the father, the meeting becomes an occasion for a collective journey toward maturity—for both children and adults. The screening is on March 14 at 18:45. Immediately afterward, the audience will engage in an online dialogue with the author of the film.
Family Therapy (Slovenia-Italy-Croatia-Norway-Serbia) by Slovenian screenwriter and director Sonja Prosenc is a dramatic story that introduces the audience to a Slovenian nouveau riche family. They live in an estate with glass walls – a literal and metaphorical symbol of their ostentatious superiority. This setting provides a fitting satirical backdrop for a humorous rethinking of reality – their world is turned upside down when a young stranger enters their home and shatters the illusion of perfection by exposing the artificial relationships among them, hidden beneath their glossy exterior. The screening is scheduled for March 16 at 16:30, and immediately afterward the director will meet with the audience in an online discussion in Sofia.
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